Traffic

June 07, 2006

Farmer John will be at the evening screenings. <b>Correction</b>: He will actually be in Oregon tonight (his <a href=http://www.angelicorganics.com/Film/realdirtcontent.php?contentfile=filmandbooktour>schedule</a> - he will be in Sonoma on June 16th).

He was also interviewed on Fresh Air. Audio is online and it will be on KQED FM at 1 pm and 7 pm and KALW at 6 pm on Wednesday.

A shorter version will be on many PBS stations as part of Independent Lens on Tuesday, June 13th (check ). Their website is now online.

Stupid KQED is in pledge dreck mode. Instead of showing, Farmer John on the night it is scheduled when it would get the most promotional push from the Fresh Air interview, they are showing Best Money Tips: Your Guide to Wealth with Jonathan Pond (if he had any real wealth, he'd have hired someone to design a better website) and a Who concert.

This is the fucking bay area. They could pledge around Farmer John. Give away his book, the DVD, and CSA subscriptions. That would be a hell of a lot healthier than Dr. Perricone's wrinkle cure books.

May 30, 2006

On June 5th, 1981, an article appeared in a CDC publication called Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report about what would eventually become known as AIDS. Frontline's The Age of AIDS chronicles the medical, political, and cultural history of the pandemic for four hours over two nights, Tuesday, May 30th and 31st. The entire program will also be available online along with a comprehensive website.

Even four hours can't tell the full story of AIDS, but this is an overview everyone should see. It takes a critical look back at the failures of politicians, governments, and institutions as well as medical breakthroughs (which might have come sooner with more funding in the early 80s).

The Reagan administration's neglect in dealing with the epidemic at a critical time are outlined in a way that was missing from the obituaries and other coveage of Ronald Reagan when he died. There were people in his administration who tried to do something, but they hit a wall of ideology.

But Reagan isn't the only leader who is criticized. The response of South Africa is contrasted under Thabo Mbeki is contrasted with Uganda which early on had a strong prevention program (which has been watered down because of restrictions on funding
imposed by congress). The documentary has an international perspective from the start but the second half focuses on the global pandemic.

There are stories which are told more fully or in different ways in other documetaries such as Ending AIDS: the Search for a Vaccine which aired on PBS last December and HBO's Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt and Pandemic: Facing AIDS.

And there will be more stories told as 25 years of AIDS are remembered. On NPR today, there was a discusssion (and they have also posted the first story NPR did in 1982 on AIDS) and The World has an archive of stories. In San Francisco, there is a memorial wall where people are posting their memories, the annual candlelight march will take place on June 4th.

But the networks including ABC, CBS, and NBC also need to do program on AIDS. If Peter Jennings were alive he might have done a program. He hosted AIDS Quarterly on PBS and had written into his contract that he would do several documentaries a year, the kind of documentaries that have almost vanished from the commercial broadcast networks.

The documentary is about Basilio Vargas who has been working in a silver mine in Bolivia for four years. He is only 14 and knows what silicosis is. He is protective of his brother who works with him and is 12. It will be hard to find a more compelling story or a more articulate narrator in any recent film.

The DVD is now available at the usual places and directly from the filmmakers. It “includes a follow-up documentary - filmed one-year later with Basilio and his family, study guides for students, behind the scenes information, and information on how to help the children. “

There is also an update on the Independent Lens site (though wait until you've seen the film to read it).

He also showed a short stylized black and white film he directed which was written by and stars Isabella Rosellini, My Dad is 100 Years Old. It begins showing on the Sundance Channel on Monday May 8th at 7 pm as part of their tribute to Roberto Rossellini along with Open City. It will repeat on Sunday, May 21st at 6 am and Wednesday, 24th at 10 pm (and probably in future months as well) and is also included with a book Rosellini did about her father which will be published at the end of June.

While it isn't the same on a small screen as it was on the huge screen at the Kabuki, it is still gorgeous, funny, and moving. Isabella Rosellini does all the voices and plays all the roles including her mother, except her father's belly.

And it is quite a cast of characters including Alfred Hitchcock, David Selznick, Federico Fellini, and Charlie Chaplin. They have a dialogue about film with Selznick saying that movies should entertain and be illustrations for novels. Roberto Rossellini replies, "Anybody should be able to make films. The hollywood system prevents that."

Rossellini says people don't just want to be entertained, they have a "...need to know. That is what my films are about, the quest for knowledge." Chaplin just speaks with a tile card saying, "Roberto, life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long shot."

Ingrid Berman says she wanted to work with him after seeing Open City
ended up collaborating with him on "five films and three children." One of those
children, Ingrid, has objected to the film (or disowned it as Maddin put it when introducing it). And I can understand why she might be upset. But for most people it will either reinforce what is great about her father's films or be an inspiration to watch them for the first time.

Towards the end of the film, Isabella Rosellini objects to Maddin's camera movements and orders him to move in for "the perfectly simple Rossellini frame."

May 04, 2006

I'll pull some quotes from it later, but I wanted to let people know they can read Tilda Swinton's Saturday State of Cinema speech on sf360.org.

It isn't the same as seeing and hearing her deliver part of a Robert McKee monologue from Adaptation or talk about her experience with Derek Jarmen, but it should be read by anyone interested in film (as well aspeople who aren't interested in film, but have too much influence over what we see).

Her Letterto Derek Jarman which she said she may have been the reason Graham Leggat invited her to give the address is also online.

April 30, 2006

A couple of years ago I went to a tribute to Marlong riggs at UC Berkeley.I was able to get a ride back along with Sam Green (who has a short documentary in the fest) to San Francisco from Adrian Belic in his convertable.

As we went over the Bay Bridge, he talked about the documentary he was working about three Vietnam Vets who deliver medicine and relief supplies to places other groups won't go to because they are too dangerous.

I'll finaly be able to see it tonight.

His documentary, Beyond the Call will be at the Kabuki on Sunday, April 30th at 6 pm and Thursday, May 4 at 3 pm.